Exception
by NeverJudgeABook
Summary: Retake of GoF with extra main character. "A muggle? At Hogwarts? No way..." That's right! A completely muggle girl was accepted into Hogwarts the same year as a certain boy-who-lived, on one condition...she stay hidden. That was, until her fourth year when Dumbledore decided to let her loose in the castle, with only Hermione for restraint. Mainly Canon ships!
1. Introduction

Hogwarts always was a strange magical school, with an even stranger headmaster. Professor Albus Dumbledore, in his last decade of teaching, had had several occurences of inexplicable and erratic behaviour. For example, leaving a small child on their unwelcoming relative's doorstep in the middle of the night, and knowingly allowing two thirteen-year-olds to travel backwards in time to save a criminal's life (well, sort of).But none was more mind boggling than the very same year that a certain Harry Potter joined the school, he also allowed another exceptional student placement at Hogwarts. A muggle. Yes, a muggle, at Hogwarts, knowing about magical folk. She wasn't even a squib. A pure, non-magical, eleven-year-old girl was invited to join Hogwarts for lessons from the headmaster himself.

Many of you will be wondering why such a fantastically brilliant teacher would allow such a thing. But, if you look back at everything just written, you will notice that not once while describing the muggle girl did I use the word ordinary. Oh no, Tora Bennett was no ordinary girl. She had a gift. An extremely rare and beautiful gift which even Albus Dumbledore had only ever seen once before. One that he was stubbornly determined to figure out and help her improve.

Tora Bennett's gift was controlling the four elements: earth, air, fire and water. Her mother had figured this out pretty quickly when Tora was about two, and she had nearly set the house on fire during one of her tantrums, and then nearly drowned them all trying to put it out again. Dumbledore was intrigued to say the least. He saw potential and grabbed at the chance of finally learning something new after all those tedious years of going over old criteria. Again. And again. And again. It was very boring. And now, this small blonde-haired muggle was going to make things a lot more interesting...

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**Don't worry, updates will be every two days, since it's the summer holidays and I have no social life. I will be expecting at least three reviews by the next chapter, so if you've got a few extra seconds of your life to spare, REVIEW, REVIEW, REVIEW! :)**


	2. Sorted

A now fourteen-year-old Tora Bennett sat at her usual desk: a small table filled with parchment and ink placed in what used to be a broom cupboard. When she had first recieved the letter from Dumbledore at her home in Coventry when she was eleven, it had specifially instructed that she would be kept away from any other students, due to the simple fact that many (mostly pure bloods) would complain to their parents that there was a muggle in the school. All of the teachers knew. of course, but she seemed to have become somewhat a myth to the pupils; most had heard rumours of the 'girl that the teachers keep locked up in a broom cupboard'. She'd rolled her eyes when she'd first heard. They made her sound like bloody Rapunzel.

It was the first day of term today, and she was now officially a Fourth Year student. Instead of sending her school week's timetable in the letter like in the past two years, Dumbledore had said that there would be a change of plans this year, though he had not stated what. So, here she was, at almost five o'clock in the evening, sitting in a broom cupboard, waiting for her (seemingly) hare-brained headmaster to come and tell her what was going on. The other students and the Durmstrangs and Beauxbatons must have been arriving at the moment. Since she was apparated here by Professor Mcgonagall from her home, she was usually the first one here.

Dumbledore arrived about half an hour early, not that she was complaining, spending half an hour staring at the cracks in the stone walls is hardly a riveting pastime. "Welcome back, Tora." He smiled with twinkling eyes."I trust you have had a good summer?"

"Yes, it's been great, my family and I went on holiday to Greece for two weeks." She smiled back, cheered at the thought of not having to spend her precious time dropping off in a corner.

"Good, good. Now, there is going to something quite a bit different about your schooling this year. You will be sleeping in the normal dormitories with the other witches, once the sorting hat has placed you in a house. Instead of having your normal schedule, you will spend lunch in the Great Hall with the rest of your peers and will be taking Ancient Runes, Potions, Astronomy and History of Magic with other students as none of these involve direct magic usage, and a teacher will help you if magic is required for the task. The rest of your time will be spent with me, practising your Controlling and studying thoery work." The corners of his mouth turned up slightly when he saw the enthusiasm light up behind her eyes. _Yes_, she thought, _a year that I don't have to spend on my own! _She rejoiced at the opportunity.

The next day, after her not-so-comfortable night in her old dormitory (another broom cupboard with a transfigured table for a bed), she was to be placed in her house by the sorting hat. She opened her trunk; there was no room for even a miniscule chest of drawers for her clothes. After dressing in her school clothes (with a Hufflepuff emblem; the Hufflepuffs tend to be less conspicuous than the Gryffindors, Slytherins or Ravenclaws) she made her way to the Room of Requirement, her usual practise arena, where she was to meet Dumbledore and Professors Mcgonagall, Snape, Sprout and Flitwick.

"As you well know, these are the heads of houses," Dumbledore began, "Professor Sprout for Hufflepuff, Professor Snape for Slytherin, Professor Mcgonagall for Gryffindor and Professor Flitwick for Ravenclaw." Tora smiled and nodded towards them nervously. "Professor Mcgonagall will place the sorting hat on your head and decide which house would be best suited to your abilities and personality traits. I must warn you that the hat's decision is final. Once the choice has been made, there is no changing it." _No pressure then,_ Tora thought anxiously. Dumbledore's twinkling eyes were fixed on her as he smiled slightly, as if he had heard what she thought. He probably had.

She took a deep breath and sat slowly on the four-legged stool, keeping her back bolt upright. The familiar grey-haired woman with hair scraped back into a formal bun almost dropped the hat onto Tora's head. A huge rip on the front of the hat opened, and Tora guessed that this would be the mouth. She was right. "Hmm, a difficult choice," it mumbled to itself, "intelligent, loyal, ambitious and courageous, but which is more defined?" It continued. "Hmm...yes...my final decision would have to be..." Tora took a deep breath and closed her eyes. "...GRYFFINDOR!" She sank down onto the stool and smiled at Professor Mcgonagall, who smiled with one of her rare smiles back.

"Well, since this was obviously a waste of time for the rest of us, I will be on my way, now, Professor Dumbledore." Snape drawled in his usual snide and monotonous voice before swiftly exiting through the door. Professor Flitwick and Professor Sprout slipped out soon after.

"I will send for my best student to accompany you around school for the first few weeks, to help you settle in." Professor Mcgonagall looked quite chuffed at the outcome of the sorting. She left in her normal hurried manner.

Tora turned to Dumbledore. "What should I do now?"

"For now, just stay in here to practise your controlling until I call you into my office to meet your escort." He replied, and followed after Mcgonagall. Tora shrugged and began.

* * *

A while later, Professor Mcgonagall entered the room, making Tora pause as she threw fireballs and ice daggers at targets. "Professor Dumbledore will see you now."

Tora followed quickly after her new head of house towards the headmaster's office. As she passed by some of the windows, she noticed the rain had actually flooded up to a couple of inches in the courtyard.

As she entered her teachers office, she noticed a girl with slightly bushy brown hair and a pretty face sat in a chair next to the large desk. Tora, despite feeling slightly nervous about meeting this stranger, was comforted by the brief friendly smile she sent.

"Miss Bennett, meet Miss Hermione Granger."

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**A little dissapointed by the lack of reviews (minus two - thank you MadiWeasley and 4everapotterhead!), but just as promised, chapter two. Need I remind you guys that I can't improve unless you review and tell me what you think! Open to constructive critisism, but no plain mean comments, thanks.**

**~ Noelle-Faye :)**


	3. Entries

**I'll put this at the start this time :)**

**To KaraokeLover1997: Thank you ! I'm trying not to do what a lot of muggle stories do and focus the entire story on Tora, because it makes it boring and not very believable, but I'm not sure if by doing this, I'm mentioning her point of view less than I should. I don't want to be just re-writing the story, you know? :)**

**To MadiWeasley: I put Tora's appearance in there just for you! ^_^ And yeah, it really is nice to have encouragement from readers, so thank you! This is my first story, so I'm kinda new at this, but stick around tell me what you think, I am open to constructive critisism, so don't feel bad about it. It will help me make each chapter better :)**

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After the slightly-less-than-awkward introductions were over, Hermione led Tora up to the Fourth Year Gryffindor girls' dormitories to drop off her bags on her new bed and then down to the Great Hall where her best friends were. Hermione had been told, of course, of Tora's status as a muggle and of her gifts, but had been instructed to keep this between herself and anyone who absolutely needed to know. From the first sentence Tora immediately recognised Hermione's impressive intelligence.

Once they had arrived in they enormous hall, Hermione disappeared for a few minutes to find her two best friends. She came back dragging two tall boys by the arm. The taller of the two, a gangly boy with freckles and bright red hair, looked as if he was mid-complaint when they neared her. "...Don't want to meet another one of your book club buddies!" he whined.

"Don't be stupid, Ronald, as if I was going to let _you_ near one again."

"That was one time! And she didn't look _that _offended!" He protested feebly. The other boy, with midnight hair and startlingly green eyes, sighed tiredly, as if this happened on an hourly basis. By the looks of it, it did.

Hermione cut the argument short."Harry, Ron, I'd like you to meet Tora." She gestured towards the short, thin girl with straight blonde hair to her waist, with a fringe cut just above her big hazel eyes.

Ron, as his natural reaction to pretty girls, whispered a "hi" with a small wave and a nervous look.

Hermione rolled her eyes. "That's Ron." She stated, pointedly glaring at him.

The other one, who Tora assumed must be Harry, held a hand out for her to shake. "I'm Harry. Harry Potter." Tora smiled and took his hand.

"I've heard of you." She said with a smile. "Tora Bennett."

After a few minutes of conversation, the boys wandered off to walk around the age line of the goblet of fire, talking and pointing out people who were going to put their names in for the Triwizard Tournament. After they had gone, Tora turned to Hermione with a serious look on her face.

"I don't mean to be rude, but...can I trust them with the secret?" Tora asked, realising how close they were to Hermione and that they were going to be around them often. It would be awkward if they started talking to her about spells.

"Yes. I've known them for three years now, and I can assure you that they are 100% trustworthy." She smiled brightly.

"Okay, I'll tell them later on then if I have the chance." They both sat down on a bench at the side of the room, Hermione clutching the book she had summoned from her room. Tora just sat and watched with awe at the people brave enough to actually volunteer for the dangerous competition in their midst, applauding with everyone else everytime a piece of paper was dropped in.

A rather handsome grinning boy clutching a tiny folded bit of paper was being pushed by his friends into the age line. "Come on, Cedric. Put it in!" One of them shouted. When he did quite a few more people than before were clapping for him, and an awkward looking Ron waved at him from the side. A few minutes later a pair of red-headed twins came running into the room, giving random people high fives as if doing a victory lap after a race.

"Well, lads, we've done it." One started. They looked a couple of years under the age restriction.

"Cooked it up just this morning." The other boasted. It was hard not to laugh with these boys, they just seemed so friendly.

"It's not going to wo-ork." Hermione trilled from beside Tora. She obviously knew them well. They came up beside her and put their heads around her shoulders.

"Oh, yeah?"

"And why's that, Granger?" They smirked.

"You see this? This is an age line. Dumbledore drew it himself." She said, moving her arm around in a circle, as if to demonstrate to two very simple children.

"So?" The twin on her right asked.

Hermione closed her book. and patted it onto her lap. "_So_, a genius like Dumbledore couldn't possibly be fooled by a dodge as pathetically dimwitted as an aging potion."

"Ah, but that's why it's so brilliant." One of them started, grinning.

"Because it's so pathetically _dimwitted_." The other finished. Tora looked at Hermione questioningly.

"They're Fred and George Weasley. Two of Ron's five older brothers." She stated.

They stood up on the bench, shaking the phials. "Ready, Fred?"

"Ready, George." They uncorked the potions.

Entwining their arms, and saying at the same time, "bottoms up," they threw their heads back and swallowed them in one. Then they jumped through the age line and a cheer arose. "Ready?" One asked, and they threw their papers into the fire. After a few seconds where nothing happened, another cheer was started, before quickly being cut off as Fred and George were thrown across the room by two whips of blue fire.

Tora's mouth fell open as the two began to grow long white hair and a grey beard whilst everyone else in the room started laughing hysterically at the two 'old men' now fighting on the floor.

Tora was chanting _'fight, fight, fight' _with the rest of the crowd next to Harry and Ron as Hermione sent a disbelieving look around the room and opened her book again.

The crowd was silenced as a broad young man with almost shaven black hair entered the room. Tora recognised his Durmstrang outfit, but was unable to comprehend why his presence would cause such a reaction. After putting his paper in, he sent Hermione a meaningful glance and a small smile. Hermione smiled back but he had already turned away. Tora nudged her with her elbow and raised an eyebrow at her. She blushed slightly and shook her head, turning back to her book as Tora smirked a knowing smirk.

* * *

Tora took a seat with Hermione, Ron and Harry at the side of the room as everybody else took theirs. She was excited, she had never been included in any of the assemblies before, and it shocked her just how many people actually attended Hogwarts, minus the Durmstrangs and Beauxbatons. She still hadn't told either of the boys about her non-magic situation.

"Sit down, please." Dumbledore started. Silence fell over the room. Tora could almost smell the anticipation in the air. "Now, the moment you've all been waiting for: the champion selection." He dimmed the fires hanging around the room with his hand. The blue fire in the ornate goblet turned crimson and spat out a bit of paper, which Dumbledore caught. Several people leaned forwards. "The Durmstrang champion is...Victor Krum." Tora recognised the man from before that had silenced the room when he put his name in. He stood up and shook the Hogwarts headmaster's hand before moving to stand at the front of the room. The goblet spit out another name, written on a circular, delicate looking piece of paper. "The champion for Beauxbatons...is Fleur Delacour." A few of the beautiful french students screamed as an extremely pretty blonde girl shook Dumbledore's hand and stood with Victor at the front. A third name was thrown from the flames. "The Hogwarts champion...Cedric Diggory." Tora recognised him as well. The handsome boy did the same as the others. "Excellent! We now have our three champions. But in the end, only one will go down in history. Only one will hoist this chalice of champions, this vessel of victory...the Triwizard Cup!"

The cup was unveiled. It was a beautiful sky blue glass trophy with complicated and delicately patterned silver handles and stem. Tora could only stare wide-eyed in wonder at the gorgeous prize. Dumbledore was interrupted when the goblet with the now blue fire again began to send out once again the same fire whips that had thrown out the other champions' names. Tora, like everyone else, looked at the goblet in confusion. It once again turned the blue fire into red and released another piece of paper. Tora could tell that this wasn't supposed to happen. It was a Triwizard Tournament, and there were already the wizards (and witch) drawn.

Dumbledore caught it and read the name. He mumbled something under his breath and called, "Harry Potter?" Tora's eyes widened. That was impossible! She might not know a lot about magic, but there was no way he could have gotten past that age line. "HARRY POTTER!"

"Go on, Harry." Hermione said when Harry didn't move."Harry, for goodness sake." I took both Hermione and Tora to shove the black-haired boy off of the bench. Ron was too busy staring disbelievingly and accusingly at him to notice.

Dumbledore looked furious. Beyond that, he looked _livid._ As Harry walked slowly and cautiously towards the front, several people shouted "He's a cheat!" and "He's not even 17 yet!". Tora didn't know what to believe. She didn't know the boy well enough to trust that he hadn't cheated, but he looked so genuinely shocked when he heard that it was hard to believe he was.

After the assembly, Ron stormed out of the room, his face as red as his hair and an absolutely outraged expression on his face whilst Hermione followed after, urging him to calm down, and he ignoring her. Tora quickly hurried after Hermione, not knowing what else to do.

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**And that draws a conclusion to my third chapter, folks! Review and I won't kill Ron :D (Kidding, I'm not gonna kill Ron, everyone loves a ginger! But seriously, REVIEW AND MAKE MY DAY!)**


	4. Beginning

The day after the awful assembly, Hermione woke Tora up at 6 o'clock in the morning, to get ready for her first day of real classes. Getting dressed into her new Gryffindor robes that had been given to her by Professor Mcgonagall the night before, she brushed her silky, honey-blonde straight hair and then separated two sections from the front to twist back and tie together with an elastic band at the back of her head. Hermione smiled appreciatively at her, but Tora could tell that her mind was preoccupied with Harry and Ron's friendship issues.

The girls made their way towards the Great Hall for breakfast and noticed Harry was already there, keeping his head down over his untouched breakfast and trying to ignore the glares pointed in his direction. Hermione took the seat next to him and Tora sat in the seat directly across from her. As Hermione and Harry chatted quietly, so as no one could hear, Tora sat listening and inconspicuously eating her jam on toast.

Tora suddenly had the uncomfortable feeling of someone and she looked in the general direction of the stare. She noticed a platinum blonde haired boy with grey eyes staring at her questioningly from across the room. As soon as their eyes met, though, he looked away sharply. He was sat at the assigned Slytherin table Although the fairly handsome boy had stopped looking, Tora kept staring curiously at him for a moment, before Hermione noticed.

"What are you looking at?" The latter asked, trying to follow her gaze. Tora seemed to snap out of it and meet Hermione's eyes.

"Oh, a, um...boy was staring at me a minute ago, and he looked kind of...confused." Tora muttered.

"Who was he?" Tora raised an eyebrow and gave her an amused smile. "Sorry, stupid question. What did he look like?"

"He has blonde hair and grey eyes. He's on the Slytherin table." Tora answered.

Hermione's expression darkened. "Malfoy. Just ignore him, he's an egotistical prat." Tora shrugged and continued eating, ignoring the occasional glances he was throwing at her.

* * *

Because Hermione did all four of the lessons that Tora had been given this year,Tora was with her in all of them. However, since Hermione's first lesson was Defence Against the Dark Arts, Tora was going to be doing some Controlling practise with Duimbledore in the Room of Requirement. Hermione had promised to leave her lesson five minutes early, since she always got all her work done within the first twenty minutes, to come and show her where Professor Snape's classroom was.

Tora entered the room to find Dumbledore already there, and she took off her outer robes ready for practise.

"Good morning, Tora." I do hope you're settling in well with Miss Granger."

"Yes, I am, she really is a great friend and I hope she considers me to be one as well." Tora smiled.

"Good. Now today I would like you to practise some Earth Control, starting with a wall to block off any unfriendly spells. As you know, even the killing curse cannot penetrate your wall if you hold it strong enough." And so the lesson began, with Dumbledore shooting minor hexes curses towards her and her protecting herself with a wall of earth she brough up from the ground. By the time the lesson ended Dumbledore had worked his way up to the stronger spells, an Tora still almost effortlessly deflecting them. "Well done, Miss Bennett. You have progressed very far since you first started this form of defence last year. Good job. I shall see you after lunch for your theory lesson."

Tora picked up her robe from the floor and put her arms through it before picking up her heavy (although rather light compared to any other student's) bag and stepping outside to find a waiting Hermione.

* * *

"We're going to be late if we don't hurry!" Hermione panicked, grabbing Tora's sleeve and half-running down the corridor. Four flights of moving staircases, another non-enchanted one, and five hallways later, Tora and Hermione made it to the dungeons where only five other people sat. Hermione had told her before that Tora could sit next to in Potions, as she usually sat on her own because she worked so much faster that anybody else. Snape was late, as always, and the other students hadn't arrived yet.

"I thought you said we were late!" Tora whispered as she sat down next to Hermione.

"We take this class with the Slytherins, it's embarassing when you aren't on time." Tora raised an eyebrow, but let it drop.

A few minutes later, the students all trickled in and Snape entered like a bat, holding his hands out and whilst gripping the edges of his ebony robes. He smirked at the class when his gaze landed on Tora sitting in the second row. Tora had the strangest feeling Snape was going to use this against her somehow. How right she was.

"Today, instead of working with the person beside you, you will be switching around so that our new student, Miss Bennett, will be able to mingle with people other than her assigned escort." When everyone turned around to look at her, she blushed a deep red and lowered her eyes to the desk. "Therefore, everyone sitting on the right side of the desk will come and stand at the front." He ordered. Half of the class stood up to walk to where the teacher's desk was, including a reluctant Tora. Snape worked his way down the line of students standing at the front and sent them off to a different desk to the one they were at before. The goofy-looking boy in Gryffindor robes stood next to her, who Snape called Neville, was sent to work with Hermione and Tora was ordered towards the desk in the back left corner of the room. Next to her, she noticed way the boy from breakfast who had been staring at her, Malfoy, was it, that Hermione'd called him? She sat on the wooden stool she had been allocated and took out a piece of parchment, her quill and a bottle of ink.

"In the first half of the lesson, you will be studying the uses of and memorising the Wit-Sharpening Potion. The second half will be spent brewing it." Snape introduced. "Open your Magical Drafts and Potions textbooks to page one hundred and forty nine. Study and discuss the desired outcome of the potion and any side effects and then memorise the ingredients needed and the tame gap between each ingredient." Snape then sat down behind his desk, his beady eyes watching the class down his large nose.

Tora turned to the grey-eyed boy beside her. "Hi, I'm Tora." She said, smiling in a friendly way.

"So I suppose you just moved here from another school, then?"

"Um...no," She said uneasily. She had been instructed to release information about herself on a need-to-know basis.

The boys looked at her. "So you were homeschooled, then?" He said this a little distainfully, as if it was something undesirable.

"Yes, I was." Well, she wasn't lying. It wasn't like she'd been to any _other_ magical schools and she'd often practise Controlling at home.

"What's your blood status?" He asked bluntly.

"I'm _sorry?_" She exclaimed, a little too loudly. Some people nearby turned to look at her and Snape sent her a silencing look.

"I said, what's your blood status, are you deaf?" He told her like it was the most normal thing to ask a new student in the world.

"What does it matter what blood status I am?" She asked, exasperated.

"You are clearly new to the system. My name's Draco Malfoy, descendant of the longest known line of purebloods at this school, which makes me automatically better than anybody else here, unless you happen to have longer than a hundred or so generations in a line of pure blood."

"Okay, _better than me? _Please. Just because you have a long line of inbreeding does not make you better than me or anybody else here." She was quickly losing her temper with this pale, irritating boy. Dumbledore had told her all about the views of some about supposed 'superiority' of purebloods and how Tora should never believe it. She was not about to lie down and take it. She continued on. "So tell me, Draco Malfoy, oh pureblood extraordinaire," sarcasm dripped off her words, "what exactly is it about pure blood that makes you so much better than a muggleborn? Hm? It can't be intelligence, Hermione can run laps around you in that department. It's certainly not charm, since you don't seem to be making much of a positive impression on me. So what is it? Please, do enlighten me." She finished, secretly proud of herself, though she wouldn't let her face betray her pride. Malfoy looked gobsmacked. His mouth kept opening and closinglike a goldfish, but no words came out. He just turned back to his work and utterly refused to look at her again. Tora smirked.


	5. Admittance

After she had managed to finish her Potion's lesson with surprisingly good results and several death glares from Malfoy, Hermione asked her to go and keep Harry companyduring their twenty minute break whilst she accompanied Ron. Tora and Harry chatted happily about all sorts of things during their break and then Harry showed her to the History of Magic classroom and jokingly offered to summon her a pillow for the boring lesson. She smiled and refused before going in and sitting next to Hermione while Harry took a seat at the back next to a scowling Ron.

"Thank you for doing that, it really helped." Hermione whispered to Tora just before the lesson began.

_Harry was right_, Tora thought at the end of the lesson. _That had to be more boring than maths at primary school. _But the funny thing was, she didn't mind. It was the first time in three years she'd been allowed to take classes with other students, and despite the dullness of the lesson, she'd enjoyed just being in the class.

As she exited the classroom right behind Hermione, Tora smiled to herself.

It was lunch straight after third lesson and Hermione led Tora towards the Great Hall again where lunch was spread across the table. Thank the stars, she was famished! She ate hungrily into a bowl of pasta salad and once she had done, even had seconds. She and Hermione headed out of the building and onto the sunshine filled grounds.

They were in the middle of a conversation about the different types of wand cores when Ron sat down beside them and looked as if he was waiting for them to finish so he could speak. The girls stopped mid-sentence anyway.

"Hi, can I ask you two a favour?" Ron asked, straight to the point.

"Depends what, Ronald." Hermione answered evasively

"Well," he blushed bright red, "say if this guy fell out with his bes...his brother and he wanted to make up with him 'cause he realised he was wrong and he wanted to make sure that his brother knew something that could help himwith something else and-"

"Speak English, Ronald!" Hermione snapped.

"Alright." He sighed. "I realised I was wrong about Harry putting his name in for the Tournament and I want to make it up to him, but I don't want to have to say sorry face-to-face, you know, 'cause it's embarrasing. So would you mind passing on a message from me?" Tora rolled her eyes and nodded, but Hermione was less willing. "Come on, Hermione, _please_?"

"Fine. But _only_ this _once_." She said with a tone of finality.

"Great! I need you to tell Harry that Seamus told me that Dean was told by Parvati that Hagrid's looking for him."

There was a silence of about five seconds where both girls just stared at him. "What?" They both said together.

Later on that day, they saw both Neville and Harry down by the water's edge. Neville noticed the group first and waved at them. Tora, Hermione, Ginny and Ronall headed down towards the lake to pass on the message.

Ginny, as Tora found out, was Ron's younger sister, and she was going to tag along for moral support of her older brother. Tora smiled, though; Hermione had told her the night before that 'moral support' wasn't the only reason Ginny was coming, although Tora could have worked that one out on her own. She'd seen the way Ginny looked at her brother's best friend.

Tora had decided she didn't believe that Harry cheated. He just seemed to in over his head about the whole thing to have knowingly volunteered, and so she'd agreed to help Ron inform Harry of the dangerous first Tournament competition. Dragons.

"But it's already been through enough people. So why don't you just go and talk to him yourself? Ron, this is your problem, not mine. What do you want us to say again?"Hermione whispered to Ron. Tora and Ginny looked at each other and kept silent.

"Go." Ron whispered back after he'd reminded her of her lines.

Hermione approached a now standing and stony faced Harry. "Ronald would like me to tell you that Seamus told him that Dean was told by Parvati that Hagrid's looking for you." She stumbled over the words uncertainly.

"Is that right? Well, you...what?" Harry looked confused. He wasn't alone. Hermione ran back towards Ron for a second

"Are you sure you won't do this?" She asked irritably.

"Do it." Ron replied forcefully.

Hermione ran back to Harry. "Dean was told by Parvati that-" She scrambled for the right words to say until Tora cut in.

"Please don't ask her to say it again. Hagrid's looking for you."

"Well you can tell Ronald-"

"I'm not an owl!" Hermione shouted before taking hold of both Tora's and Ginny's shoulders and leading them back towards Hogwarts, with Ron following closely behind.


	6. Temperament

Tora knew harry had been to see Hagrid and was now awarw of his first task, but wht nobody was expecting was when Harry turned on Ron for not telling him himself. Tora was walking with Ron and Seamus when it all kicked off.

"It's not like I try to blow things up, exactly. It just happens a fair bit." Seamus was saying in his distinctly Irish accent. "You have to admit, though, fire's pretty fascinating." Tora just smiled; she knew exactly how fascinating fire could be. Her smile faded when she saw Harry storming towards them.

"You're a right foul git, you know that?" Harry fumed, his cheeks turning pink with anger.

Tora frowned anxiously and hoped to calm the situation. "Harry-" But he completely ignored her.

"You think so?" Ron asked sarcastically.

"I know so." Harry replied.

"This is getting slightly out of hand, so I'm just going to-" Tora tried.

"Anything else?" Ron interrupted, acting as if she wasn't there.

"Yeah, stay away from me."

"Fine." Ron said, bumping Harry's shoulder with his own as he walked off, Seamus following suit.

"Harry, what was that about? He tried to help you!" Tora demanded.

"He could have helped me more than passing on a message that'd already been through three other people to get to me. His brother, Charlie, was the one dropping the bloody dragons off! He could have told me to my face instead of through you and Hermione!"

Tora sighed frustratedly, but she knew Harry had a point. She hadn't known that it was his brother that'd dropped them off. If she had, she wouldn't have agreed to help Ron.

A new voice invaded her thoughts as she frowned in confusion at the whole argument. "Why so tense, Potter?" Without even looking at the boy, she wanted to punch him for being so insensitive. Tora and Harry turned 90 degrees towards the tree to see a familiar blonde's sneering head sat among the branches. "My father and I have a bet, you see." Tora raised an eyebrow, but he didn't see. "I don't think you're going to last ten minutes in this tournament." He jumped down from the tree and casually walked towards them, smirking. "He disagrees. He thinks you won't last five." All of his bonehead friends chortled as if he'd said something outrageously funny.

"I don't give a damn what your father thinks, Malfoy." Harry closed the distance between them and shoved him hard in the chest, knocking him back a step, the smirk clean off his face. "He's vile and cruel."

Tora joined Harry, only as to pull him away by the arm. "And you're just pathetic." She finished his sentence, leading him away.

"Pathetic?" They heard him mutter angrily. Tora turned around and sent up and earth block just in time to stop Malfoy's incarcerous spell from hitting the back of her head.

Before anyone watching could register that she'd just used magic without a wand, Professor Moody hobbled into the courtyard, with his wand held high, shouting "oh, no, you don't, sonny!"

Quicker than saying 'Quidditch', Draco Malfoy was a white blonde ferret hanging mid-air and bouncing at the control of Mad-Eye Moody. "I'll teach you to curse someone when their back is turned! You stinking, cowardly, scummy-"

Moody's rant was held when a stony faced Professor Mcgonagall happened upon the sight. "What are you doing?"

But he acted as if she hadn't spoken. "...Back-shooting-"

"What are you doing?" She asked again, more forcefully this time.

"Teaching." He replied, still bouncing Malfoy the ferret with his wand.

"Is that a...is that a student?" Professor Mcgonagall was unable to speak properly through her shock and anger. Tora's sides were practically splitting at this point.

"Technically, it's a ferret." That didn't help. And then he did the most hilarious act of punishment yet. He grabbed Crabbe, one of Malfoy's fools by the waistband of his trousers and made Malfoy nosedive into them.

Not only that, but the other, equally as stupid henchman, Goyle, quickly shoved his hand down there, shouting, "Stand still! Stand still!" and then got bitten by a rodent-Malfoy.

Moody, witha cold look from Mcgonagall, reluctantly changed Malfoy back into a human form again. And then Malfoy, being Malfoy, went and put his foot back in his mouth again. "My father will hear about this!" He shouted at the one armed professor.

"Is that a threat?" Professor Moody shouted in rage.

"Professor Moody! Professor!" Mcgonagall was trying futiley in the background to regain his attention.

As Malfoy managed to run around the tree to escape the mad, hobbling wizard and run across the courtyard, Moody was shouting at his back. "I could tell you stories about your father that would curl even your greasy hair, boy! It doesn't end here!"

"Alastor! Alastor. We _never_ use transfiguration as a punishment. Surely Dumbledore told you that?" She pointed her wand at his scarred face.

"He might have mentioned it." He mumbled.

"Well, you will do well to remember it." She turned to the large gathering of students standing around to witness the fight. "Away!" She ordered, storming back towards her office.

"You, boy," Moody barked at Harry. "Come with me."

Harry really didn't have a choice. He gave Tora a weak wave and she returned it with a small smile as a way of goodbye. She thought back to what had transpired a few minutes prior. She smirked. She'd been really lucky to get away with that earth block.

* * *

**Hello peoplez! Sorry for not doing this before, I only remembered to after I'd uploaded the chapter, so... Anyway I'll do it now :)**

**To MadiWeasley: Thank you for your _two_ reviews! In answer to your question, yes, I am basing the story on the movie because it would take absolutely FOREVER to rewrite an entire book :) Since you are the only one that frequently reviews, I've gotta ask you, do you think I am focusing on Tora too much or not enough? I'm not sure whether I should mention her point of view more or less... Tell me what you think :)**

**To Galgalatz: Malfoy doesn't like it when he doesn't know something, so he's pretty confused when a random girl that he's never seen before starts hanging around with the Golden Trio. He just feels like he's missing something and he doesn't like it. **

**To the anonymous reviewer who calls him/herself Siren: Thank you for boosting my confidence with that review, it's nice! I will be updating frequently since I have pretty much no social life whatsoever, so that just means more time to write. **

**To coolgems1630: Thank you for your review, I will take it into account, but since I don't have many followers or favourites, I sort of rely on reviews for people to let me know what they think of the story. But thanks, you did help me relax a bit when it comes to reviews :)**

**IMPORTANT NOTE (DUN, DUN, DUN!):**** Just to let you know, I am going on holiday tomorrow, so the next time I upload a chapter will be next Wednesday. But don't worry, I will be writing more chapters on my iPod while I'm away, ready to be typed up on my computer and uploaded!**

**Keep reviewing, people, I do want to see some more reviews, although I won't threaten to kill Ron this time because 1. You'll know I'm lying, and 2. I would be completely contradicting what I told coolgems1630! Bye for now! :)**

**~ Noelle-Faye**


	7. Boys!

The day of the tournament had arrived. The first competition was going to be in the newly magicked stadium just two miles up the mountain from the Hogwarts castle. Harry's big day.

Tora stood in the row of seven people, the order being Dean, her, Neville, Ron, Colin and Seamus on the very end. Hermione'd gone to check on Harry. In the few weeks that she'd known them, Tora had become somewhat of a friend to most of the Gryffindors. She was accepted as the 'New Girl' and was asked to places along with the gang often.

Fred and George were walking behind them with a box of money shouting: "Bets! Place your bets! Bets taken! Bets taken here! Step up, folks! Who fancies a flutter in today's bloodbath? Smart money's on Krum to survive! Any bets?" Tora tried to drown them out and listen to Dumbledore announcing the introduction to the 'game'. _More like harvesting_, Tora thought to herself.

"Your attention, please." Dumbledore had used some sort of spell to amplify his voice across the entire stadium. "This is a great day for all of us." _Not for Harry, Fleur, Victor or Cedric, I expect. _A loud roar emitted from the awful looking spiky dragon near the entrance. "Each of the three tasks involves very considerable danger. Please keep in your seats at all times." About half of the audience reluctantly sat. "This will minimize any risks you may be exposed to. I'm sure we all wish our champions the greatest of luck." A monumental cheer rose from the enormous circle of seats. He stepped off the pedistal to join the contestants in the cream tent behind one side of the wall.

"Oh, no, not her again!" Ron exclaimed from two seats away.

"Who?" Tora shouted over the noise.

"What do you mean 'who?' Rita Skeeter, heading for the champion's tent. She's the dirtiest, sleaziest journalist the Daily Prophet's ever known. She writes most of their stories. Don't know why anyone bothers reading them. Just a bunch of lies." He explained. Tora recognised the name now; she was the one who'd first publicised the rumour of Dumbledore locking a girl in a cupboard, and the one who'd almost gotten him suspended from his job by doing so. Dumbledore'd had to tell the ministry that Tora was a squib who he had been secretly trying to cure to save himself getting arrested. Tora hated her already.

Neville piped up from between them. "Well, she doesn't exactly lie, she just twists the truth. Made a lot of money off of her, the Prophet have."

"You're defending her?" Ron asked incredulously.

"Heck, no. But even if she is making up half the 'facts' the Prophet aren't going to let her go with the amount of money she's bringing in."

Both Ron and Tora watched the unnaturally blonde woman sneak through the back way into the tent. They watched the tent for a few minutes. She reemerged after about thirty seconds with a distinctly smug look about her.

Ron looked at Tora. "Bet you anything she's caught Hermione in there with Harry." Tora just nodded with an evil scowl directed at the smirking woman.

Hermione squeezed in betwwen Ron and Neville just before the boom of the cannon sounded the start of the contest. All of the Cedric Diggory supporters started chanting his name, urging him on. Most stood up to try and get a better view of the events that were about to unfold, ignoring the shouts of the teachers to sit.

The first three champions drifted by in a blur, each of them collecting the egg only five minutes into the challenge. Harry was up last.

"Three of our champions have now faced their dragons and so each of them will proceed to the next task. And now, our fourth and final contestant."

Everyone on their quarter of the stadium stood up and began chanting Harry's name, their row being the loudest. Even Ron, who was supposed to be his mortal enemy at the time, was cheering him on like there'd never been a fight, let alone that it was still going on. Despite their cheering though, everyone had an anxious expression on their face.

There was a silence and no sign of the monsterous dragon. Harry started towards the shiny golden egg in what seemed like a giant pile of rocks. Out of nowhere the dragon's lethal tail whipped out and almost landed straight on top of Harry. Tora almost screamed. Then the spiky dragon turned around and blew fireballs bigger than Hagrid at Harry's face. He tried scrambling up the side of a rock and nearly got flattened by the beast's tail again, before he got thrown down and had to hide behind a large boulder as the monster blew fire at the side of it. Tora felt her fingers twitch, wanted to redirect the course of the fire away from her friend.

"Your wand, Harry! Your wand!" Tora and Hermione screamed from ten metres above him in the stands.

"Accio Firebolt!" He shouted and aimed his wand at the sky. Nothing happened.

"What's he doing?" Tora asked Hermione, just loud enough for her to hear; they wouldn't want anyone getting suspicious.

"Summoning his broomstick, I think." She answered, preoccupied with the destructive game. Harry was behind the rock again, having fire blown at his back. A huge cheer went up when Harry managed to jump on top of his brromstick mid-air.

"Yes!" Tora shouted with the rest of her peers.

Harry got so close to the egg that everyone in the stadiumheld their breath and let it out again when he missed by less than five centimetres. Harry flew out of the dragon's perimeter, the green thing following closely behind. He was restrained by his chains. Apparently, not for long. In what looked like an effortless tug, the chain was broken and the dragon had followed Harry out of the arena.

"Oh my God." Ron panicked.

Harry flew over the 'VIP' section of the stands, and the giant's green spiky tail ripped through not only the thin fabric of the canopy, but left a trail of broken wood down the middle of the seats as well. Tora knew it could have caused some serious damage, but she couldn't help but let out a laugh when Rita Skeeter sat up, having jumped out of the way, with her glasses askew and her hair lopsided.

Both flying beings flew nearer to Hogwarts until the fog cut out Tora's vision. everyone stared in the direction they had flown in, not seeing anything, the fog was too thick, but not wanting to miss a thing. While most spectators were mumbling uncertainly, Ron, Hermione, Tora, Dean and Neville stood frowning worriedly into the white emptiness.

A few moments passed. And a few more. No one could hear anything either.

A moving black dot came out from behind the mountain, with no considerably larger black dot in tow.

"Yes! Yes!" Hermione screamed from beside them and everyone joined in, looking relieved.

* * *

Harry stood in the middle of the Gryffindor common room holding the egg in the air for everyone to see. A large emseble of people stood in a circle around Harry, cheering for the person many thought to have cheated for eternal glory. Tora stood at the front of the circle, nearest to Harry, crammed in next to Seamus.

Fred and George grabbed Harry by his legs and lifted his skinny body up onto their shoulders.

"Yes, Harry!"

"Knew you wouldn't die! Lose a leg." Fred started.

"Or an arm!" George continued.

"Pack it in all together!"

"Never!" They shouted in unison.

"Shush!" Seamus smiled at the crowd behind him, taking the egg as it was being passed forward. He kissed it then handed it back to his owner. "Go on, Harry, what's the clue?"

"Who wants me to open it?" Harry cried. The crowd bellowed an affirmative. "Do you want me to open it?" Again, the crowd roared. Harry put his hand on top of the oval and twisted it.

An awful, painful screeching sound emitted from the large golden egg. The entire common room, including the moving pictures covered their ears against the piercing sound. Tora blocked her ears and shouted at Harry to close it.

"What the bloody hell was that?" A voice asked in the doorway. It was Ron. _Oh, boy_, Tora thought, taking a seat next to Hermione.

George called from the middle of the room. "All right, everyone! Go back to your knitting. This is going to be uncomfortable enough without all you nosy sods listening in." Immediately people turned their backs on the fighting friends, but nobody left the room. Who in their right mind would want to miss a fist fight between the Boy-Who-Lived and his best friend?

Ron approached Harry with his head slightly hung. "I reckon you have to be barking mad to put your own name in the Goblet of Fire." Tora supposed this was his way of admitting he was wrong.

"Caught on have you? Took you long enough." Harry accused.

"I wasn't the only one who thought you'd done it. Everyone was saying it behind your back." Ron protested.

"Brilliant. That makes me feel loads better."

"Least I warned you about the dragons."

"Hagrid warned me about the dragons!"

"No, no, no, I did! Don't you remember? I told Tora and Hermione to tell you that Seamus told me that Parvati told Dean that Hagrid was looking for you. Seamus never actually told me anything, so it was really me all along. I thought we'd be alright, you know...after you'd figured that out." Ron mumbled.

"Who...who could possibly figure that out? That's completely mental." Tora had to agreed with him there.

"Yeah. Isn't it?" Ron laughed weakly. "I suppose I was a bit distraught."

Tora shook her head at them, 'a bit distraught'? "Boys!" She said exasperatedly.

* * *

**Sorry about the long wait, folks, I was too busy on Wednesday to upload the new chapter, but here it is now, all bright and shiny and new :D Please review, it makes my life unboring :)**

**~ Noelle-Faye :)**


	8. Mutation

**First of all, I'm sooooooooooo sorry about the huge unacceptably long wait, so here's my excuse: Well, school started obviously and this year is probably going to be the biggest academic year of my life (and the most stressful), then two months ago my computer died on me and I had to wait this long for my dad to revive it. Once again, very sorry :( Read til the end then review, people!**

* * *

The morning after Harry and Ron forgave each other, Tora was once again shaken awake by Hermione at eight instead of six. It was a Saturday. Hastily dressing in an appropriate, Hermione approved, knee-length, sky blue summer dress and combing her hair, Tora followed her best friend's not-quite-so-bushy head out of the room, still half asleep. Over the past few weeks, Tora had become an accepted part of Harry's group, participating in conversations and generally being a friend to Harry and Ron. She'd laughed when she was told all about their trysts in first, second and third year, whilst telling them what Dumbledore's reactions to them were when they weren't there (all good or just slightly disapproving, of course, why else would she have been put in Hermione's care?). She now considered Hermione to be her best friend, with Harry, Ron, Ginny and Neville not too far behind.

She and Hermione sat opposite a chirpy Harry and a droopy Ron. This was normal. "Hello." Hermione smiled, helping herself to some bacon.

Hi." Tora was still yawning, choosing her daily jam on toast.

"Hey there." Harry was already halfway through his meal.

Somewhere after finishing talking about the ton of homework they'd received over the week, a conversation, of rather debate, was started on quidditch teams, at which point Hermione and Tora automatically tuned out, residing to their own thoughts. That was until Hermione subtly elbowed Tora in the ribs, making her visibly jump. Ginny and the boys were too wrapped up in the Chudley Cannons to notice.

"When are you going to tell them?" Hermione demanded in a whisper. "I don't think we can keep this up forever." She didn't sound impatient or rude, just worried.

"Soon, I promise." Tora answered.

"Well, why not now?"

"Because anyone at the table could hear us now." Tora replied, confused.

"Not right now, obviously, after breakfast. Hogsmeade's not available, but the other girls will be heading to the library to gush over that sixth year boy who's got detention there."

Tora thought it over. They were going to be no less surprised now than later, and this was the perfect opportunity. She was decided. "Okay then." She whispered, nodding her head. "But you'll be there too, right?"

"Of course. Someone needs to stop Ron from fainting." They giggled.

"Hey, Ron, Harry?" Tora interrupted their conversation quite abruptly.

"Yeah?"

"Could you guys come up to our dormitories straight after breakfast? We need to talk about something." She looked Harry dead in the eye, trying to show him that it really was important, a hint their dearest Ronald would be oblivious to. He discreetly nodded back.

* * *

They finished their They finished off their breakfasts pretty quickly and the four of them headed out the Hall, Ron complaining all the way that they all knew something that he didn't. Tora glanced to the side of the room where something had caught her eye in her peripheral vision. The sharp-faced blonde boy was staring at her again. She pretended not to notice, even though she knew he knew she had.

They got upstairs to the fourth year girls' dormitories and shut the door. Hermione muttered a spell under her breath to stop any sound going outside the room.

"Well?" Ron asked impatiently. All three pairs of eyes glared at him.

"There's something that I need to tell you." Tora started. "My parents are muggles." The boys looked unfazed.

"So are Hermione's." Ron pointed out, and although Harry said nothing, Tora could tell that he didn't see her implications either.

"You didn't let me finish. My parents are muggles. My brother is a muggle. And…I'm a muggle." She muttered so quietly that not even Hermione, who was sat right next to her, could hear.

"What? I didn't catch that." Harry spoke up.

Tora took a deep breath. "I'm a muggle. I'm not a muggleborn witch, I'm not a squib, I am completely one hundred percent muggle. Not a drop of magical blood in me."

"What?"

"How?" The two were so perfectly timed anyone would've thought they'd practiced.

"Dumbledore asked me if I wanted a place at this school because, although I don't have witch blood, I do have a gift that is so extremely rare that even Dumbledore's only ever heard of one other case. He was curious about it and wanted to learn from the experience, so he invited me to Hogwarts to study with him as my teacher. I've been here all along, just hidden away from everyone else. And this year, Dumbledore decided to put me with the rest of the girls my age to help me mature and grow easier. That's where Hermione comes in. She was assigned as my guide to help me around the school for a few weeks-"

"Woah, back up...gift?" Ron asked curiously.

"Yeah," Tora said, a little worried about what reactions her friends might have.

"What kind of gift?" Harry spoke up.

"Well...why don't I show you?" Tora beckoned them out of the dormitory door and all four of them made their way down to the Black Lake.

"Go on, then." Ron urged.

Tora took a deep breath and closed her eyes, raising her arms above her head and pressing her palms together before bringing them back to chest level. She opened her eyes and drifted her hands out slowly towards the water. The dark greenish water rippled.

"Wow. Impressive. Can I go get back to my breakfast now?" Ron was still grouchy, having woken up half an hour earlier. Tora frowned and shot her hands up, her hands now turned so her palms were facing each other again. Sharp-looking ice daggers showered upwards and then pointed at Ron. She turned around, raising an eyebrow at Ron. "Woah." Ron's eyes had turned to tennis balls and he gulped audibly. "That's...that's pretty cool."

"Water Control's only part of it." Tora said, smiling proudly for herself. She wasn't bigheaded, but she'd learned this trick just a couple of weeks before, and she'd been dying to show somebody. She turned back around to face the water again, stepping back slightly. Stomping one foot down and drawing her hands up slowly, fingers curled, a thick rectangular chunk of earth rose up. "Earth Control can be used to block any offensive spells, including the killing curse if the ground's dry and dense enough." She dropped her arms and the block of earth sunk back to it's original position.

"That's how you did it!" Harry mumbled to himself.

"What?" Tora's eyebrows drew together in confusion.

"That day Malfoy tried to hex you and somehow you stopped it, but you weren't holding a wand."

"Malfoy tried to hex you?" Hermione's lips pressed together. Just like with Harry and Ron, Hermione had become very protective of Tora in a maternal sort of way. She tried to turn towards the castle, probably trying to give Malfoy an earful, but Ron grabbed her arm and pulled her back.

"Air Control, although not usually used for offensive tactics, is very useful for evasion of spells." Tora used the heel of her right palm to draw a wide spiral. The air around them began to move into the small tornado she had created beneath her hand. She stood inside the forceful air and pulled it upwards, bringing her with it. She was mid-air, riding a tornado. After a few seconds, she lowered herself to the ground again and dissolved the swirling wind into the air, to become calm once more.

"You know, that would probably be alright for offensive fighting as well, you know, that tornado." Hermione suggested. Tora, surprisingly enough, hadn't thought about that. She scolded herself for being to wrapped up in training the elements to think of the offensive qualities of Air Control.

"Yeah, it would. Thank you." She smiled brightly at Hermione. "And now, onto my favourite offensive element control." She smiled knowingly at all three of them before curling her hands up, as if holding a ball, and lifting her arms slightly. On either side of her, a teardrop shaped tunnel of blazing orange fire appeared. Harry, Ron and Hermione stepped back. Tora released the flames, which then faded into tiny clouds of black smoke floating up from the ground, before disappearing altogether. "And...er...that's my 'gift'." Tora said, a little awkwardly, dropping her hazel eyes to the floor and tucking a strand of hair behind her left ear.

"Wicked!" Ron broke into a grin. "Wait 'til Malfoy finds out!"

"No!" Tora jumped in. "You can't tell anybody. Dumbledore kept me out of anyone's view for so long because he didn't want anyone to find out my blood status. Imagine the pureblood's and their parent's reactions if it came out that there was a muggle at Hogwarts."

"There's loads of muggles at Hogwarts, Tora!" Ron protested.

"No, they're muggle_borns_. Born of muggle blood but magic also runs in their veins." The corners of Hermione's mouth turned up in pride. "In case you missed half of my speech there, I'm not magical at all."

"Yes, you are!" Ron was still trying to defend his point.

"No, I'm not. I'm…I don't know, mutated or something. But I'm not magical."

"No, you're not." A figure whose face was obscured by the shadow of the tree nearby stepped out to face them.

* * *

**Oooooooooooh, cliffhanger! Only it's a heightless cliff, because I don't know who to put as the 'shadowy figure guy'. I'm stuck between:**

**a) Dumbledore**

**b) Malfoy**

**c) Someone else (e.g. Ginny, Neville, Blaise etc.)**

**Can anybody help me? Review with your choice!**

**Loving you all as always ~ Noelle :)**


	9. Gramophone

**Again with the huge long wait, but I've been thinking about who to put as the 'shadowy figure' and I've only just thought about who it should be without changing the plot too much. Read and find out, and I'll write again at the end, as always :)**

* * *

The shaded person stepped from behind the tree, his face becoming illuminated in the morning sunlight. "No, you're not." His tongue flicked out from between his thin lips.

"Professor Moody! Um, we didn't see you there..." Tora stared sheepishly at her feet. "I thought that all the teachers were told at the meeting before the start of school?"

"Of course, Miss Bennett, but you can't expect me to be unsurprised when I catch you experimenting out of your designated area and in front of other _magical folk_." He sharply pointed out to her.

"Dumbledore told me that I could tell people that it was necessary to tell." Tora's defiance got the better of her, and she raised her eyes to meet his.

Moody looked unconvinced and his eyes narrowed slightly at her tone. "Well, if that's all, you'd better be getting back to breakfast, then."

They took that as a dismissal and speed-walked back to the Great Hall. As they sat down, they realised it was only halfway through breakfast, and some people were still only just arriving. Two of those who prefer a longer sleep were the ridiculously pretty Indian twins, Padma and Parvati. As they passed, they not-so-subtly attracted Harry's attention.

"Hi, Harry." They said and giggled simultaneously. Tora rolled her eyes, looked at Hermione and faked being sick. This recieved her a glare from one of them. Hermione was too mature to do anything like that, but she smiled all the same. Harry, on the other hand, was gazing to the other side of the room, where the popular Ravenclaw girls were sat. One of the girls whisped to an ebony-haired chinese girl, who turned her head and looked back at Harry. Harry, in all his fourteen-year-old awkwardness, had taken a sip of his pumpkin juice and tried to smile back to her, and of course the pumpkin juice he'd been about to swallow dribbled down his chin. All the Ravenclaws started laughing at his actions.

"Shush!" The black haired one called back to her chuckling friends. Tora smirked at how naive Harry could be sometimes.

"Look at this!" Hermione's outraged cry made everyone around them jump. "I can't believe it! She's done it again." She was holding the Prophet, profusely glaring at a page. Without further prompt, she launched into reading the offending article. "Miss Granger, a plain but ambitious girl, seems to be developing a taste for famous wizards. Her latest prey, sources report, is none other than the Bulgarian bonbon, Viktor Krum." She eyed the paper scornfully. "No word yet on how Harry Potter's taking this latest emotional blow."

The rant that was undoubtably to follow was cut off by a short blonde boy. "Parcel for you mister Weasley." He chirped. Hermione shook out and shoved down her paper angrily.

"Thank you, Nigel." Although this was an obvious goodbye, Nigel still stood there, smiling dorkily at Harry. Harry looked flattered, but doubly creeped out. Both Hermione and Tora leaned around Ron, raising an eyebrow. "Not now, Nigel. Later. Go on." Nigel scurried away, and they all looked at him expectantly. "I told him I'd get him Harry's autograph." He explained, before distracting us with the parcel Nigel brought. "Oh, look, mum's sent me something." He ripped off the paper and opened the cardboard box inside. He held up a frilly wood-coloured material in disgust. "Mum sent me a dress!"

Harry laughed freely at the misfortune of his best friend. "Well, it does match your eyes. Is there a bonnet? Ah ha!"

"Nose down, Harry." Ron mumbled unhappily, but the corners of his mouth turned up all the same. He wandered self-conciously over to his sister, sitting away from the general crowd. "Ginny, these must be for you."

Ginny's freckled nose crinkled. "I'm not wearing that, it's ghastly." Hermione covered her mouth with her hand as she laughed at Ron. People turned to look at her strangely, Tora being one of them.

"What are you laughing about?" Ron didn't like that even she was laughing at him.

"They're not for Ginny." She chuckled. "They're for you." The whole Great Hall burst out laughing. "Dress robes."v She explained, still smiling.

"Dress robes? For what?" Ron's question would be answered later that day, when normal classes were cancelled to be replaced for the morning with something even more horrifying.

* * *

The Great Hall was strictly divided into two, the boy's side and the girl's. The Gryffindors were the first to be scheduled in after breakfast, so they were just told to stay where they were. Professor Mcgonagall stood in the middle of the divide, waiting for quiet. Filch was in there too, cleaning what seemed to be a Gramophone. The huge record player crackled suddenly, making several people sit forward in their chairs. When the hall settled down, the grey haired teacher began to speak, addressing her house. "The Yule Ball has been a tradition of the Triwizard Tournament since it's inception. On Christmas Eve night, we and our guests gather in the Great Hall for a night of _well-mannered_ frivolity." She looked at the boys with raised eyebrows before continuing. "As representatives of the host school I expect each and every one of you to put your best foot forward. And I mean this literally, because the Yule Ball is, first and foremost, a dance." An excited chatter consumed half of the room while the other gave disgruntled sighs and disapproving looks towards their new least favourite teacher.

Tora, who was sat next to Hermione and Angelina Johnson, was siding with the boys for once. If she managed to trip over when waling on a flat, solid surface with no obstacles, what chance did she have at a _dance_? She prayed to the heavens that she would be allowed to skip it, but seeing as Mcgonagall wanted _'each and every one of them'_ to represent the school, she doubted they would make an exception.

If Mcgonagall noticed the lack of enthusiasm from the entirety of the boys, she pretended she didn't and continued anyway. "Silence! The house of Godric Gryffindor has commanded the respect of the wizard world for nearly ten centuries. I will not have you, in the course of one evening, besmirching that name by behaving like a babbling bumbling band of baboons." Of course this set Fred and George off, Tora could see them start frantically whispering to each other from across the room. "Now, to dance is to let the body breathe. Inside every girl a secret swan slumbers longing to burst forth and take flight." Tora had to cover a laugh with a cough when she said that, thinking about the girl that she knew every boy was thinking about now: Eloise Midgen. Sweaty, fat and desperate. _Every boy's dream swan, _Tora thought with a smile. "Inside every boy a lordly lion prepared to prance." Tora almost did laugh then, looking directly at Ron. He saw and sent her a playfully dirty look. "Mr Weasley."

He looked up warily. "Yes?" She pulled him up by the shoulder of his school jumper and dragged him to the middle of the room, where all the laughing eyes of his friends would be on him. Tora was having real trouble holding in her giggles ready to be let out of me.

"Now, place your right hand on my waist." She instructs.

Ron's eyes grew wide. "Where?"

"My waist." Her eyes looked expectant, but his hand was off her waist as soon as it touched it, showing a rude sign towards someone who had wolf whistled at him. Mcgonagall grabbed his wrist back and carried on talking as if it hadn't happened. "And extend your arm. Mr Filch, if you please."

A horrifically formal piece of music began playing on the old gramophone. A small chuckle was finally forced to come through, causing the people around Tora to look at her. She ignored it. They were laughing on the inside too.

Mcgonagall was keeping the beat by counting "One, two, three," over and over again. Fred, George and Harry were whispering to each other again, before Fred and George returned to a straight position and were dancing cheerfully to the awful music. Then Mcgonagall said the words the Tora was futiley hoping she wouldn't. "Everybody come together. Boys, on your feet!"

It was a bit ironic really, how the only girl sitting down was Tora, and the only boy standing up was Neville. Of course, all the girls avoided him at all costs. Tora felt bad, though, when she saw Neville's downcast face. She stood, bravely and walked brisquely and pointely towards Neville, making soem of the girls around him who had clearly picked a partner so they wouldn't have to go with him look ashamed and a bit sheepish.

"Come on, Neville, let's dance." She smiled at him and his face split open into a fully-fledged grin as they took their position and the music began again.

* * *

**There you have it! Okay, important question. I've tried to make Tora as un-Mary-Sue-like as possible, but I couldn't make her ugly, so someone has to ask her to the ball. Who should it be? I can't continue with the next chapter without knowing, so tell me who you think it should be. Just whoever it is, it CAN'T be Harry, Ron, Cedric or Neville, as their dates kind of play an important part in the story. Let me know!**

**~ Noelle :)**


	10. Information

**Thank you all soooooooo much for the lovely reviews, and I do have a genuine excuse for lateness this time. I've just finished GCSEs and my prom was yesterday (another reason I thought it would be a good idea to write the Ball scene now), and my computer's officially dead now. R.I.P. Noelle's Computer, 2003-2013. Anyway, enough with the boring stuff, onto the story :D**

* * *

Tora sat outside on a bench next to a book-absorbed Hermione, and a bored Harry and Ron. They seemed to be entertaining themselves by watching the ocean. Tora almost laughed as Ron nearly fell asleep on his hand.

"Why don't you boys go inside and do something else, I'll keep Hermione company."

"We can't, she's doing my homework, it's in for the next class and I have to make sure I get it – I mean, she gets it – done." Ron protested. Tora raised an eyebrow.

"If you did your homework by yourself and on time, Hermione wouldn't have to do it, and you wouldn't be sat here bored out of your minds."

Hermione shushed them loudly without looking up from the book. A few awkwardly silent moments later, Tora noticed a group of what looked like giggling girls a way along the lake. Narrowing her eyes and peering more closely, she saw the hulking figure of the international Quidditch champion not five metres ahead of them. Before he reached them, his head was turned in their direction. More specifically, a certain bushy haired bookworm's direction. Tora elbowed Hermione gently in the ribs, attracting her annoyed attention before directing it to the still-staring eyes of Viktor Krum. Hermione glanced down at her book again as if she didn't care, but Tora caught her glimpse at his retreating figure as he went past. The boys caught it too, but being the ignorant fourteen-year-olds they were, didn't read into it as Tora did.

As they walked inside again, Tora flashed Hermione a knowing grin. Hermione blushed lightly and looked down.

* * *

The study hall was packed with students, all with their mouths closed and their quills scribbling. All except Ron of course, who was looking around the room while ranting to Harry in a whispered annoyance. Unfortunately, Snape happened to walk past him a few times, earning him a few whacks on the head with parchment. He continued anyway.

"This is mad. At this rate, we'll be the only ones in our year without dates." Hermione threw him an irritated glance. She was clearly trying to work. "Well, us and Neville." Both Harry and Ron snickered. Tora had been working, while tuning in and out of Ron's rant.

"Yeah, but, then again, he can take himself." Harry laughed at Neville's expense along with Ron, annoying Hermione even more. This lecture had been going for around ten minutes, and the entire time she had been watching Hermione get more and more cross. Finally, Hermione let slip a cold statement that made Harry and Ron lose their smiles.

"It might interest you to know that Neville's already got someone."

"Now I'm really depressed." Ron sulked.

Tora couldn't help herself. "You should be, it's your sister." She restrained her giggles as Ron's cheeks reddened.

She had a feeling he would have said something else, but at that moment, a piece of parchment was passed down the table to Ron, courtesy of Fred.

Tora couldn't read it from where she was sat, but she heard Ron whispering the words out loud.

"_GET A MOVE ON OR ALL THE GOOD ONES WILL HAVE GONE."_Ron looked indignantly at him.

"Who are you going with, then?"

Fred flashed a cheeky look back at his little brother and then turned his attention to a dark haired girl near him on the table. He scrunched up a piece of parchment and threw it at her head. At the same time he whispered loudly, "Oi, Angelina?"

She looked over at him. "_What__?_" She whispered back, the whisper full of acid.

He whispered back while gesturing to emphasise the words he was saying. "Do you want to go to the ball with me?"

Her mood changed. "To the ball? Yeah, all right." She smiled at him. Tora rolled her eyes at his theatrics.

Hermione, on the other hand, had been completely obliviously immersed in her studies throughout the entire exchange.

"Oi, Hermione." Ron leaned towards her. Tora nearly scoffed as she realised what was coming. She was there when Hermione was asked by Viktor Krum, but also, she knew that Ron was not the smoothest guy when it came to talking to girls. "You're a girl."

Tora let a small, almost inaudible giggle out of her mouth. "Very well spotted." Tora held a hand to her mouth.

"Come with one of us?" Ron said confidently. Snape gave Ron another well aimed parchment to the head. Hermione looked outraged. "Come on. It's one thing for a bloke to show up alone, but for a girl, it's just sad." Harry looked mildly amused at everything.

Tora braced herself for the cutting comment she knew Hermione was about to punch Ron with. "I won't be going alone, because, believe it or not, someone's asked me!" She got up out of her seat, closing her book. She stormed over to Professor Snape and handed it to him, before raging back over to their table and grabbing the rest of her things. "And I said yes!" The two boys and Tora watched as she fumed out of the Great Hall. Tora shot Ron an accusing look and handed her book in as well. She walked out of the Great Hall after Hermione, intending on calming her down, and glanced back at the boys, who were currently having their heads pushed downwards towards the table by Professor Snape for talking. Tora smiled to herself, _they had it coming_, she thought.

* * *

**Okay, I know I promised you this would be when I told you Tora's date for the ball, and I have chosen someone, but this chapter got too long and I will be putting that scene at the start of the next chapter, promise :D For now, though, hope you enjoyed the chapter, but whether you did or didn't, please, PLEASE review and tell me what you thought. Suggestions for later chapters can be made also :D REVIEW!**

**~ Noelle-Faye :)**


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